(Normal) Winter in Moldova

To be honest, when I first heard I was coming to Moldova and where it was located, I envisioned nearly year-round snow and a landscape that can only be described as arctic. Well, as far as summer and fall go, I was way off. Now, with the heart of winter upon us (at least as far as this year goes), I’m 0 for 3. That’s right, it’s the middle of January and our average temperature for the month is a good 6 or 7 degrees above freezing regardless of your unit for measuring temperature. As I type this post it is 10:00 at night and it is .6 C, which is 34 F or 273.75 K.
That might not sound super-warm to all you state-side people, but consider the fact that almost all of you are being insulated by a hefty blanket of snow yourselves right now. We, on the other hand, are blessed not with snow, but instead mud. It was cold enough to put all of nature into its yearly hibernation, but then it warmed up and in place of the snow there was rain. And to think, I heard all the worries about this year being the coldest winter in some thirty hojillion years. So much for that. Weather experts, I scoff at your feeble predictions.
Anyway, we were blessed with at least some fresh powder before our winter vacation and I wanted to take this opportunity to share some views of that with all of you. Maybe it will hold me over until winter (fingers crossed) makes its glorious return.

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